


Change The Future (But Don't Alter The Past)

by PurpleMillie (JustHereToFanGril)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Diverges from canon early season 2, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Future Team Voltron, Google Docs is my beta reader, Look I know its tagged character death but IT ENDS HAPPY I PROMISE, M/M, Slow Burn, Time Travel, background shallura - Freeform, rewrite of an old fic, tags will be added as story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 18:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19469974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustHereToFanGril/pseuds/PurpleMillie
Summary: Another day in space, another planet to save. It’s nothing new to the Voltron crew! They’ve been rescuing planets for Deca-Phoebs now. It's gonna be an easy peasy in and out operation. Sure, They were down two members this time around, Keith and Lance’s lions being out of commission for the foreseeable future, but no big deal. They could handle it. Piece of Cake. No problem whatsoever.Well, until there was...The rest of Team Voltron — Hunk, Pidge, Allura, and Shiro — are given a vital warning from the future. They must prevent the blue and red Paladins from bonding and getting together — at all cost. Their very relationship is what starts a chain reaction that ends in the fall of Voltron, and the END of the universe.





	Change The Future (But Don't Alter The Past)

**Author's Note:**

> Well, this first chapter has been sitting in my docs forever. Damn.
> 
> Hello everyone, and welcome to this little fic i've been planning on and off since season two (hence why canon divergence is so early,,,, old fic). This is actually a revived version of an old fic called "Whatever The Future Holds", uploaded to my account several years ago, but has since been deleted. If any part of this story seems familiar, that's why.
> 
> This fic will be updated sporadically as i'm more active in other fandoms at the moment, but I still hope to see this fic to its completion. Even if that takes me three MORE damn years... This bitch is getting done whether it likes it or not.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy, and I would appreciate any Kudos or comments you're willing to give.

_ “Uhhhhhhg.” _

Lance turns off his phone and groans in exasperation. He tosses it to the side carelessly, causing it to bounce off his mattress. It clatters against the wall before falling in between the bed frame, before hitting the floor with a loud ‘clunk’. He makes a sound of annoyance, but makes no move to retrieve it. He flips himself from laying on his back to leaning on his left elbow, and pulls his covers up over his shoulders with his other hand, plopping down on the mattress forcefully, then curling up into a ball beneath his blanket. 

Lance’s face is contorted into a comical, forceful scowl. With no one in particular to direct it at, he glares judgingly at the wall opposite from him and his bed. Secretly, he hopes part of the wall will melt if he stares hard enough. It would relieve some of his anger, and hopefully reveal his secret mutant powers his five year old self always knew he had.

He stares at the wall long and hard, unblinking, but, alas the wall does not melt. It doesn’t even bother looking intimidated by his piercing glare. Disappointed (and still angry) he relents only after a few minutes, plopping his head down onto the pillow with a low grumble. He looks over to the digital alarm clock resting on the desk sitting against the same wall. It emits the same soft blue glow of light that many of the other electronics in the castle did. He glares at. It was partially genuine, but mainly just him squinting from trying to read the time.

_ “3:03 A.M” _

He smashes his face into his pillow and groans loudly, hoping it was muffled enough not to disturb anyone in any of the rooms nearby. Not that he really cared. He was too tired to care. He’s been up for four hours with only a thirty minute nap in between today and yesterday. He wanted to take something and smash it into the wall with all his might. Particular his clock.  _ Especially  _ his clock. Would it leave him with no clock, and shards of broken glass to cut his hands on as he cleaned up? Yes, but he didn’t care. He was mad.  _ Big  _ mad. And exhausted. God He. Was  _ so. Exhausted _ .

He’d woken up randomly at 11:30 for seemingly no reason. The second he opened his eyes, the overwhelming sense of dread and impending doom weighed down on his chest. They were feelings he was more than used to by this point, but they were usually accompanied by a mission gone wrong, or something exploding and one of his friends nearly dying. Which happened  _ often _ . Without so much as a crazy nightmare to look to for explanation, he became... unnerved. Something was off. An odd and unfamiliar feeling settled in his chest. He didn’t like it.

He sat up quickly and checked his surroundings, prepared to fight an intruder who somehow got into the castle without triggering any warning systems. Though there was only so much he could see in the faint blue glow of the wall lights, there didn’t seem to be anything out of place. His clothes remained exactly where he’d thrown them to the ground earlier. Nothing On his desk had fallen over or shifted out of place. All the doors, bedroom, bathroom, and closet, were shut tight. Nothing  _ appeared  _ to be amiss, but Lance still couldn’t seem to calm himself.

He never experienced  _ anything  _ like it before. Waking up out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night wasn’t something he’d ever dealt with. Ever. He’d always been a heavy sleeper growing up. Never so much as stirred in his sleep, let alone woken up after going to bed for the night. Not once. Not even for the urge to get a drink, go to the bathroom, or even run to his parent room because of a nightmare. He slept like a  _ rock _ . Even back when his younger siblings were babies that cried all night. Heck,  _ he  _ slept better as a baby than any of  _ them  _ ever did. Before joining Voltron, nothing short of an  _ air horn _ could get him up for school in the morning.

The sudden little jolt of consciousness was… jarring. It left him confused, a little paranoid, and drenched in sweat and breathing like he’d just jogged down the street. He just…  _ woke up _ . There was no noise. No castle alarms blaring, not yelling outside his room telling his to get to the lions — _ not so much as the soft buzzing of electricity from the lights _ . It was peaceful and quiet.  _ Too quie _ t. There was something wrong. There had to be, he could  _ feel  _ it.  _ Something  _ wasn’t right.

He forced himself to close his eyes, and thought for a moment. Struggling between rationalizing with himself, and letting his imagination get away from him and run wild. Was he having sleep paralysis? No, he was moving just fine, and he had yet to see any terrifying demons at the foot of his bed. Even If he did he wouldn’t be scared. He was used to seeing Pidge by now. That little gremlin didn’t bother him none.

Hmm… what else? ...Well, one time he read this article online that said humans sometimes wake up if they feel like there being watched, like by ghosts and stuff. ...But Lance wasn’t so sure that was true. Despite his superstitious family and upbringing, he doesn’t  _ believe  _ in ghost — let alone  _ space  _ ghost. And on top of all that, he’s gotten used to feeling of being watched by now. Experiencing plenty of ambushes since joining Voltron nearly a year ago, he’s  _ intimately  _ familiar with the feeling. He could tell if someone was staring at him in the first five seconds.

C’mon, it’s gotta be  _ something _ ! Lance thinks hard, but his mind only draws up blanks. He’s too tired to think rationally..; but he isn’t thinking  _ irrationally  _ either. Maybe that would have been comforting enough to some people, and maybe it should comfort him. But the lack of an answer isn’t good enough. He needed an explanation. So he did the only thing a teenager could in a time like this. He pulled out his phone and got to googling.

It’s not something a  _ normal  _ teenager in space might do… lack of internet access in all. But Pidge and Hunk managed to set up an internet archive a few months ago on their downtime. They somehow figured out how to catch signals sent out from earth (which  _ apparently  _ happens all the time. Still sounded fake to Lance, but whatever) and managed to collect random information from the web — if they were close enough to their home galaxy, at least. 

It’s mainly just snapshots of a whole bunch of search results from a certain year, with updates attempted every month or so. It doesn’t hold very much information, and most of it’s a little dated, but at least they  _ had  _ the internet again. It was incredibly limited and really didn’t offer much... but it was better than having nothing. Like there first few months in space.  _ That  _ was awful.

Anyway, after a few minutes of typing, retyping, and completely rewriting, his question, he finally found what he was looking for. Well, something he was willing to  _ convince  _ himself was true, anyway. At least for his own peace of mind and the sake of his sleep schedule. It manages to calm him enough where he feels comfortable going back to sleep. He chalks it all up to a ‘hypnic jerk’, and lays down to fall back asleep.

However, his peace of mind didn’t last very long.

The odd feeling he thought faded and completely forgotten about, spiked in intensity the instant he closed his eyes. Stomping out the security he had just grasped onto. It was sudden, and physically made him jerk. What was nothing more than a faint and inconspicuous fuzzing, turned into a physical  _ ache _ , dead in the center of his chest. It’s foreign. Unlike anything he felt before. Well, no, it still felt  _ familiar _ , in a forgotten memory kind of way... he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

It was different than the fear and anxiety a few minutes ago, and wasn’t anything close to the dread and impending doom either. All of a sudden he was feeling… sad. No, it wasn’t quite like that… It was more intense, heavier than that. He felt  _ empty _ . He felt..  _ heartbroken _ . Like his heart had been taken out of his chest. Not like he felt shattered after a break up, rather he  _ lost  _ something important. Something  _ irreplaceable  _ to him. And it took his heart with it.

But not even all that scratched the surface of how it felt.

The feeling only became more intense every time he closed his eyes, and it just doesn’t want to go away. Even now, hours later, as he’s laying in bed looking at the clock watching time slowly roll by him, he feels it. It isn’t as strong as it was, fading to what it was before, but it’s still there. Just under the surface. He tries to ignore it, but like gum sticking to the bottom of his shoe. It’s nearly impossible to get rid of.

Lance stands up out of bed in defeat. He can’t stay still on his own very long, and he  _ refuses  _ to try. He’s long been sick of tossing and turning, and he can’t take it anymore. His left arm and leg have gone numb from laying on it for so long, and he feels the pins and needles travel up them as he stretches. He a little loopy from the lack of rest, and can practically feel bags under his eyes already. He curses himself for not bringing any make up with him. He didn’t know he was going to be launched into space for months on end, but he still should have been prepared. He’s going to be  _ desperate  _ for concealer in the morning.

He stands in place for a moment, just zoning out as he stares at the wall again, that faint feeling hollow in his chest. He supposes if he’s going to be up, he might as well do something productive, or even fun… but that idea is quickly abandoned. He didn’t have anything particular in mind, and he doesn’t even the energy to think of something. Plus, the castle was kind of creepy at night, with all the lights dim and everything so silent. He hated leaving his room when no one else was up. Made him thankful the bedrooms all had their on suite bathrooms.

So Lance lets his eyes wonder about his room lazily, inspecting all the items and objects strewn about the room. Some of if are things he bought himself, and others are random junk (which was probably trash) he collected off the ground from random planets. Rocks and the like. Most of his collection is littered all over the floor, acting as falling and tripping hazards. He’s been gathering a bunch of stuff from random places the past few months in an attempt to make his room to feel more like home, and it’s actually been pretty successful. This room was just as dirty as the one he shared with his older brother back on earth. He tries not to think about that too much…

Then he moves up to the walls, which has somehow remained cleaner than the floor, despite his tendency to collect wall decorations. Several areas are covered in random alien posters, pictures, maps, and awards, all given to him by allies and those Voltron has saved. There were also a handful of handwritten letters and drawing given to him by (mostly) young children. He lets a small smile across his lips. He can’t read a word of any of them, but he still feels an overwhelming sense of gratitude they contain, just as when they read them to him themselves. It felt great to have such an effect on people's lives. Give them hope for the future. It fulfills him… at least partially.

A large part of him still missed Earth. Missed his family… God, did he miss his family. He was so homesick. All these missions, being a hero, and saving the day distract from it occasionally... but he can’t keep his attention on if for long. He always thinks back to his old life on earth. It overwhelms him with sadness, and he nearly cries every time he recalls something new. He talks big around others, shows off and puts on a brave face, but Lance really isn't used to being a hero… And he’s not sure he’s happy with this life.

He doesn’t regret it. He doesn’t regret  _ any  _ of it. He wouldn’t change his place in Voltron for the universe, but he’s… just not used to it.  _ Any  _ of it. Not used to flying a giant magical lion, living in a huge castle that also happens to be a spaceship, eating tasteless food goo for every meal, constantly floating through space... It was all still so foreign and different. When he left earth that day, he was completely unprepared. Space was nothing like he’d been told. Space was nothing like anyone on earth ever  _ knew. _

No one knew about it. No one knew all the life on other planets. All the amazing technology, far more advanced than their own. No one knew of the 10,000 year old space war that continues to rage on  _ everyday _ . Or even the 10,000 year old space dictator behind it all of it, conquering and exterminating planets left and right. No one knew. No one could have told him. He just came out here in a big blue lion on a whim, and got dumped into the center of it all, and was expecting him to step up and defend the universe no questions asked. It was all so  _ stressful… _

Lance gives himself a moment to breathe, putting a hand over his chest to calm himself. 11 months in, and he still gets anxiety just from thinking about it all. And that was the worst part about it… He was stuck in his head to deal with his fears and frustrations. He has no one to talk to. They were all back on Earth, far, far away from here, and he had no way to contact them.

He looks out of the window just to his left and takes in the vast image of space… Well, he does have someone, but even then, he doesn’t feel like telling her  _ everything  _ sometimes. It’s just… not the same as having a family member. Not the same as having a friend you grew up with since you were practically a baby. It’s been hard to trust others since leaving earth. All he had was his team… but he couldn’t possibly talk to  _ them  _ about any of this stuff. They were all so brave and well adapted. They aren’t concerned with his selfish thoughts about missing home, or being afraid of the unknown. They didn’t have time for that. They had a universe to save.  _ And he did too _ . He had to be brave, just like everyone else… even if he was faking it.

Lance lets out a heavy sigh and falls back onto his mattress, staring up at the ceiling. His heart and mind going a mile a minute. He reflects on his deepest fears and regrets, past mistakes and how things could have gone better. He’s not feeling the least bit ready for bed, but his brain betrays him.

The room becomes fuzzy and dream like, his vision going blurry from exhaustion. His eyelids feel heavy, and he struggles and fights against the weight to keep them part way open. He fights hard, fearing the feeling in his chest that grows each time they so much as twitch. He doesn’t want to fall asleep, doesn’t want to know what he’ll dream if he does… but he can’t help it. He’s been up far too long and his body is past it’s breaking point, and he eventually concedes.

He lazily pulls himself back into bed so he can position his head carefully on his pillow. If he was going to pass out from exhaustion, he might as well be comfortable, right? The last thing he needed after the suffering of a sleepless night was a sore neck. By the time he gets himself situated, he doesn’t even get the chance to pull his blanket over him before setting his head on his pillow, and falling asleep Instantly.   
  


* * *

Lance awakes to the wall lights of his bedroom steadily turning themselves to max brightness (his own version of a wake up alarm). He hasn’t opened his eyes, but his face still scrunches up out of reflex at the increase of light. He groans and throws an arm over his face.  _ God _ , were they  _ always  _ this bright? Probably, but if they didn’t seem  _ dimmer  _ yesterday. Maybe someone was messing with the lights or something. That seemed like a thing Pidge would do.

His arm does little to shield his eyes from the intense gleaming slipping in through the cracks. He was certainly awake, but he still didn’t feel like getting up. Too tired. So he pulls one of the pillows from under his head and lays it over his face. The artificial darkness relaxes his eyes once again, and he sighs into the fabric. He lay for a moment and stares into the pillow. Dropping his arms to his sides, he lays completely still. If he was lucky, the oxygen deprivation would make him pass out.

Lance focuses on his breathing and heart rate. He exhales and inhales at a slow pace, his heart beating at a steady rhythm. He was relieved to find the weird feeling from last night was completely gone, and he hadn’t be disturbed through the rest of the night. And, despite the resulting drowsiness and loopiness from a restless night's sleep, he felt  _ mostly  _ normal. He was also pretty exhausted, yeah, but all things considered he was feeling much better. Besides, it wasn’t anything another few minutes of sleep couldn’t help—

_ *~GUUURGLE~* _

Lance’s stomach growls comically loud, and he’s feeling the hungriest he’s ever felt in his  _ entire  _ life. Like he hadn’t eaten in  _ days _ . Oh great,  _ now  _ he has an appetite. Stomach old buddy old pal? Couldn’t pipe up last night and given him something to do? No midnight snack adventure to take his mind off things? No, of course not. Only ever hungry when he’s supposed to be. Alteans and their stupidly strict eating schedules.  _ So much for a few extra minutes of sleep, _ Lance thinks to himself as he slowly shifts into a sitting position.

“ _ Lance, please report to breakfast in the next few doboshes, _ ” Allura’s voice suddenly booms over the intercom. The unexpected noise sends Lance jumping out of his skin, and falling out of bed onto the ground with a shriek “ _ I repeat, please report to breakfast within the next few doboshes. If we don’t see you there soon, we  _ **_will_ ** _ come get you. _ ”

The com clicks off and Lance shivers on the cold floor.  _ That  _ was a promise Lance knew  _ all  _ too well. Allura was overall a  _ kind  _ and  _ caring  _ person — but she did  _ not  _ like to fuck around. The last time she threatened to drag him out of his room, he ended up at the breakfast table in nothing but his boxers, absolutely freezing his tail off. Luckily everyone else besides Shiro had already finished, so he was spared the looks of judgement from most of the team.

Lance had learned two valuable things that day. One, Allura doesn’t bluff, and two, sleeping with a pair of pants on is _vital_ for keeping his dignity intact. And with those lessons in mind, (and being a food motivated Labrador at heart) Lance quickly picks himself off the floor to get ready for breakfast.

He rushes to the bathroom, and rubs on a quick layer of face lotion, before zooming back out over to his closet. He hastily pulls his pajama shirt over his head, puts on his blue lion robe, and shoves his feet into a pair of matching blue slippers. Then, finally, he lazily combs through his crazy bed hair with his fingers, (which does little to actually tame it) and exits his room, making his way toward the kitchen. Though it only just a little way down the hall, he still speed walks to get there as fast as possible.

Which looks like was for more than his benefit.

“Aaaand, time!” Pidge says as he enters the doorway. She throws her arm down as if tossing the flag at the end of a race.

“Two minutes and two seconds,” Hunk replies, stopwatch in hand.

Shiro nods in amusement at Lance “Not bad.”

Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro all sit at a large table in the center of the room. Shiro (of course) sits in the chair at the head of it, with Hunk and Pidge sitting on either side of him. They all have plates of food goo sitting in front of them, but it doesn’t look like they’ve eaten any of it. They were all focused on the watch in Hunk’s hand, which he held between them all for viewing. Lance just raises an eyebrow then shrugs, before walking over to the goo dispenser for some breakfast.

“Well, technically it’d be…” Pidge holds up her fingers to count “ _ One _ minute  _ forty nine _ seconds. Since ticks are slightly longer than seconds.”

Hunk shrugs “Eh, semantics.”

Lance sits next to Hunk with plate of food, taking a few bites before even sitting down. “You guys are having a bet, and you didn’t even  _ consider  _ bribing me?” he says with his mouth half full. He looks between hunk and Pidge with a suspicious expression that wasn’t quite convincing, before swallowing “Who are you and what have you done with my friends?”

Hunk rolls his eyes playfully and Pidge tries to kick him under the table, but her legs don’t reach far enough. Lance scoots back his seat a little further out of her reach and sticks his tongue out at her. She reaches her body as far under the table she could go with only her head still remaining visible, kicking violently. She gives up when he moves back even further, and slumps in her seat.

“Wasn’t a bet,” Shiro says “Allura asked us to time you. If you were longer than five minutes, we were supposed to drag you out of bed.” Lance nearly chokes on his food, and Pidge snorts. He glares at Shiro, but he just smiles innocently. Oh, don’t  _ even _ , old man.

“He’s  _ kidding _ ,” Hunk says from beside him, giving a light bump of his elbow “We just got bored waiting for you, so when Allura announced over the comms, we thought it’d be fun to time you.”

“We  _ should  _ have had a bet though, because I  _ totally  _ would have won.” Pidge says with a smirk.

“Nah,” Lance shakes his head “Hunk would  _ totally  _ win me over first. I mean, have you  _ tasted  _ his cooking?”

“Yeah, well…!” Pidge cuts herself off, and looks thoughtful for a moment, “Yeah, you’re right.” she nods her head in agreement, making everyone at the table laugh.

The conversation moves on from there, and Lance lets himself sit back and listen while he eats, too tired to participate. The voices of his friends chattering about their daily lives is one of the few things that calm him. Living in such close quarters and isolation with each other for nearly a year now, it’s not really that much of a surprise. They have to spend every waking moment with each other, and they’ve really become like a second family. And he loves them all dearly. They’re what make the Castle of Lions feel like a home.

They make him feel like he can put on a brave face and keep fighting. There was no battle he couldn’t face with them by his side. ...Not that he’d admit any of it out loud. He wasn’t sure if everyone else felt the same, and Pidge would probably just mock him for it.

Just as he finishes eating, Lance eyes wander over to her absentmindedly, not really intending to look at her more than a second. Though, he does a double take when he realizes she isn’t there. He looks over to Hunk and Shiro. They’re lost in conversation, and don’t seem to have noticed her absence. Then he feels something touch his leg, and he nearly yelped in surprise.

“What’s your problem? You almost gave me a heart attack!” Lance hisses as Pidge crawls out from under the table with a snicker. She stands besides him and stretches.

“I dunno what you’re talking about,” She says adjusting her glasses, giving him a sly grin. ”I was just getting something I dropped. Not my fault your big lanky legs were in the way.” 

Lance rolls his eyes “You sure you weren’t taking a nap under there?”

“Depends, you gonna tell on me?” Pidge reaches for a chair near her and pulls it over a bit closer to Lance, so they can sit next to each other and talk. It’s a bit difficult, but she manages. He holds back a chuckle and waits for her to finish, an amused smile on his face.

He notices the dark circles under her eyes when she sits down “Did you stay up all night again?”

“Yeaaaaaah,” she yawns, slumping in her chair.

“Y’know that isn’t good for your health, right?”

Pidge rolls her eyes “Yeah yeah, whatever  _ Shiro _ .” she shoves Lance’s leg with her foot and he laughs “I was working on something new for the lions. I crammed and got everything done in a few hours so I’d have some free time this weekend. I even managed to add the update to your lion,” she glares over to Shiro “Y'know, before  _ someone  _ dragged me off for some silly  _ breakfast _ !” she says with a slightly louder voice. Shiro just side eyes her from afar. He doesn’t stop his conversation with hunk, and ignores her.

Lance holds back a laugh. Pidge should know by now there’s no skipping  _ family meals _ with  _ Dad  _ hanging around. If he had any say in it, she’d probably be going to bed at 8:00 earth time.

“You updated my lion by yourself? She  _ let  _ you?”

“Yeah, she’s let me mess around with her stuff before, so she knows what I'm doing.” She shrugs “Yellow is the same way, but i’ve haven’t gained Red’s trust yet…” she mumbled.

Looks like not everyone trusts the computer gremlin to poke around in their code.

“Well, what was it?”

Pidge yawns a big yawn and stretches out her entire body, before slinking down into her chair just far enough for her chin to rest on her chest. She waves her hand about as if dismissing the subject. “Just simple stuff. Couple upgrades that should cut delay time for some things,” she lets out another yawn “What about you, though?”

He looks at her with a confused expression “What about me?” He repeats.

“Yeah. You said  _ I _ look tired, but  _ you  _ look exhausted. Like you haven’t slept in a  _ week _ .”

Lance lets out a groan and throws his head back and whines “Uhhhg, is it  _ really  _ that obvious?!”   


“Yeah, dude,” Hunk says looking over to him, apparently having finished talking to Shiro “You look like you got punched in the face and got two black eyes from it,” ouch, there’s that burning honesty.

“Huuuunk!” Lance cries out as if he’s in pain “You’re supposed to be my best friend!” He pulls on his cheeks with pinched fingers, as if were somehow going to rid the dark circles under his eyes. Hunk just lets out a sympathetic laugh and quiet apology in response.

“Are you feeling alright, Lance?” Shiro asks with earnest “You don’t usually have trouble sleeping, something keep you up?”

Lance sighs. He rests his head on his hand propped up by his elbow and taps his fingers of his other hand on the table. God, what was he even gonna say to that? ‘Yeah, I woke up in the dead of night for literally no reason, and couldn’t go back to sleep because of an unknown feeling that’s impossible for me to describe’... Well, that would probably be a fine answer, but… with Shiro being there he didn’t want to get into it. He had a  _ tendency  _ to  _ overreact  _ to problems. What can be easily soothed with a pat on the back, he more often than not gave long dad speeches for instead. Lance had enough of  _ those  _ to last him a lifetime. He didn’t want to deal with it. He just wanted to forget about last night altogether.

“I don’t know,” He says finally. “I just couldn’t sleep. I had this… weird feeling.”

“Woah…  _ freaky. _ ” 

Lance snaps his gaze back over to Pidge. His face scrunches up in confusion as he drops his hand from his chin slowly, and Hunk and Shiro do the same. Was… she making fun of him? I mean he wasn’t specific about how it felt so she didn’t know, but,  _ what _ ?

“Oh, I mean,” she says as she realizes all attention is on her “Uh, I was just gonna say that  _ Keith  _ said the same thing to me last night. While I was working. Like, word for word,” she looks back to Lance “...Did you guys plan that, by the way?” she asks sheepishly.

“What?  _ No _ .” Lance says in offence, face contorting into disgust. Why would he plan a prank with Keith? And such a  _ lame  _ one at that? He doesn’t know if Pidge has noticed, but they don’t  _ exactly  _ get along the greatest. Seriously, why would she even think—?

“Hm, weird.” Hunk says nonchalantly, interrupting Lance’s thoughts. “Where is Keith anyway? I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

“Now that you mention it, I don’t think I've noticed him anywhere since late last night.” Shiro chimes in.

“He’s probably just off training somewhere in the castle and got lost.” Lance tries to say flatly, but a slight twinge of irritation slips out at the end.

Pidge pushes up her glasses and sits up cross legged in her chair. “I dunno, but he was acting kind of weird last night. Is something up with him, Shiro?”

Shiro looks at her curiously, and shakes his head “Not that I know of, why?”

She cocks her head “Well, I saw him in the red and blue hangar last night after coming back from a pee break and—.”

“Wait, why were you in our lion’s hangar?”

Pidge glares at Lance for interrupting her, but continues nonetheless. She sighs “It’s the furthest one from mine and Hunk’s. I can’t get any late night work done with Green right beside me.”

Lance laughs “What, you can ignore _Shiro_ nagging at you to go to bed, but your _own_ lion's too much?”

Pidge rolls her eyes and scowls at him, folding her arms tightly “Tch, You have your own lion too, Lance, you know how they can be!” She practically yells in exasperation.

“Yeah,” Hunk says, a smug and knowing grin crawling across his face “Doesn’t Blue do the same thing to  _ you  _ when you forget to  _ eat _ ?”

Lance opens his mouth to retort, but quickly closes it and takes a moment to think. He tilts his head and looks up at the ceiling thoughtfully “Alright, fair point.”

“That… doesn’t  _ sound  _ weird?” Shiro says, replying to Pidge’s earlier statement.

And he’s right. When Keith isn’t at the training deck, he’s typically hanging out with Red. He’s practically married to his lion. Being in the blue and red hangar didn’t seem out of the ordinary. Even accounting for how late it was. That guy doesn’t even  _ have  _ a sleep schedule.

“Yeah, but…” Pidge says with a dramatic pause “He wasn’t there for Red — he was checking out  _ Blue _ .” 

There’s a loud slam on the table quickly followed by a chair screeching across the floor.

“HE WHAT!?”

“Well… that still don’t sound too strange,” Shiro said, everyone ignoring Lance’s outburst. They were pretty used to it by this point “He checks on the other lions sometimes when he’s bored.” He shrugs.

Pidge scoffs “Okay,  _ yeah _ , going in and taking a quick look would be one thing,” she leans forward onto the table, and her face looks more serious “but he kept bugging me while I tried to go back to work. Asking if I did any scans on her recently, were planning to any time soon, if she was alright. Like he was checking on his dying grandma in the hospital. I even asked him he knew  _ which  _ lion he was talking about, and he just gave me this dumb look.” Pidge crosses her eyes in mockery, earning both laughter from Hunk and a scolding from Shiro. 

They all keep talking, but Lance doesn’t hear them over the ringing in his ears from being so angry. What was all this? What the hell, Keith? What does he think he’s doing, checking out  _ his  _ lion. Not happy with one lion, so now you gotta have two? Gonna pilot the right side of Voltron all by yourself,  _ buddy _ ? Well, unless you can find a way to clone yourself, don’t even think about it! There’s no way he’s letting Blue go, and Lance will gladly fight Keith to keep her. If he finds him pulling the moves of her, hands will be  _ thrown _ . No, scratch that, if he so much as  _ looks  _ at blue,  _ Voltron is suddenly gonna be missing it’s right arm. _

“Hey, where are going?” Pidge asks when Lance begins taking his empty plate of food over to the dishwasher. He mumbled something vague along the lines of ‘around’, not bothering to face her.

“Well, if you bump into Keith, tell him to report back. We have training later and I don’t want him to be late.” Shiro calls after Lance as he heads for the door, but he only waves a hand back in acknowledgement. “And you should get ready too. Don’t want to get chastised Allura for showing up in PJ’s.”

Lance heads out the door without another word, but keeps a mental note to go and change soon.   
  


* * *

Lance shouldn’t let it get to him... He  _ really  _ shouldn’t. Worrying about it was stupid and irrational. Lance knew that. Lance can admit that. It’s just… well. He can’t help it.

Paladins and their Lions have a special, powerful bond. It’s unlike anything else in the universe has, or will ever see. They’re connected to each other by fate. Destined by some high unknown power to fight together and defend the universe until the universe was safe.

A lion and her paladin are extensions of each other. Like an extra limb. They pick up each other's slack. Where one cannot succeed, the other can. And vise versa. They are strong because of their similarities, but even more so because of their differences.

The lions obey their paladin and their paladin  _ alone _ . Their bond is unique and impossible to artificially replicate. They fit together perfectly. Like dedicated puzzle pieces. There are no substitute for their partners. If they can’t have each other, they will have no one. They’re  _ irreplaceable _ .

And while they could be distanced from each other physically, lions and their paladins will  _ always  _ belong to each other. Nothing will ever  _ tear them apart _ . Nothing can ever  _ separate  _ them.  _ Not even Zarkon _ .

...At least, that’s what Allura told them.

That’s not to say Lance  _ disbelieved  _ her, because he  _ didn’t. _ He trusts and believes her and everything she says wholeheartedly. She’s  _ one  _ of only  _ two  _ people still left in the universe who knows all of the lions known secrets, and is the only one that could help unlock more. There’s nothing else to go on, no one else to reference to.  _ He  _ sure wasn’t an expert on ancient magical lions from another planet 10,000 light years from earth. But… it doesn’t do much to soothe his anxiety.

Self confidence has always been something Lance struggled with. Whether it be looks, smarts, or talent, he often finds himself feeling lesser than the people he looks up to and envies. He’s always comparing and contrasting himself to others in self deprecating ways. He’s been that way for as long as he could remember. But he didn’t really acknowledge and accept it until he met Blue.

Back on earth, Lance could hide his insecurities. He could keep it all to himself and pretend it wasn’t even there. He could put on a false bravado and convince everyone he was fine. That nothing was wrong. And sometimes he even believed it himself. He couldn’t do that anymore. Not with Blue around.

Now that he’s a part of Voltron, Blue’s  _ almost always  _ in his mind. There’s no hiding from her. It’s impossible. She can peer into his mind and find his most darkest of secrets he keeps from himself and everyone else. She sees what he refuses to show, what he keeps locked down tight, and pulls it out of him. Expelling it as if it were nothing more than a bad dream. _ Meant  _ to be forgotten. Unworthy of lingering thoughts at midnight. ‘Silly. Trivial. Unimportant.’.

She reassures him when he’s feeling low. Helps him see the truth when malicious lies caused by self doubt cloud his vision. Makes him see his own potential, and recognize his growth and all the improvement he’s made. She’s like a mother consoling her child. And in a way… Lance thinks she kind of is.

He’s always felt something akin to a maternal bond with Blue... At least a little bit. She’s  _ supposed  _ to be more like a guardian spirit to him. Guiding and protecting him when necessary, but not intervening if he could save himself. That’s all she  _ should  _ be to him. She was a veteran war machine built for battle and destruction. An intelligent weapon he had the  _ privilege  _ of communicating with during missions and battle. Not a shoulder to cry on and someone to come running to when you’re upset.

...And yet, she fit both roles perfectly. Lance  _ couldn’t help  _ but feel that way about her. She always says and does the right things. Her presence at the back of his mind is enough to comfort him instantly, even in his most painful and fear ridden moments. She’s willing to fight for him. Give her life for him. She sacrifices her own safety and well being on the  _ daily  _ for him. Lance wouldn’t have made it through half of the dangerous stunts he’s pulled without her.

With such a strong bond with her, Lance shouldn’t be worried about Blue leaving him any time soon. And truthfully... he wasn’t. Not really. He  _ believed  _ Allura, and he  _ knew  _ nothing could separate them. He  _ knew  _ they would always be there for each other.

But still… he can’t help it.

Even with the truth spread right out in front of him, the hypothetical thought is enough to make him panic. It worries him. Soaks him in a damp layer of fear he can’t seem to dry away, with a nauseating fume clouding his senses. His mind runs away with countless what ifs and ridiculous scenarios, imprisoning him in a constant loop of irrational fears that only get worse and worse the longer he remains in his own head. He gets stuck in there. Trapped. And he can’t escape on his own.

That’s why he finds himself here. At the blue and red hangar. 

Blue is the only one Lance can talk to in his times of need. She’s the only one he feels comfortable with. Besides, who better to talk to about all this than her? She’ll know just what to say. She always does.

Lance puts his hand on the control panel, and opens the door. He enters. Spanning nearly three football fields across in all directions, and ceiling stretching up over 100 feet, the room is absolutely  _ huge _ . Red and Blue sit at the very center of it, a few yards away from each other. Red is to his left, and Blue to his right. He nearly laughs every time he walks in here, seeing them so close together. All this room to accommodate two giant robots that dwarf in comparison to such a large space, only for them to be constantly stationed next to each other. The hangar looked like it was built to fit  _ twenty  _ lions rather than just the two. ...Okay, well maybe not that many… but it still was a little big for  _ just  _ them.

He approaches Blue, and once he gets close enough, her eyes light up as she lets out a faint roar, before entering his mind and rolling around in a playful greeting. She then immediately begins rummaging around through his subconscious thoughts. She seeks out everything that’s bugging him like she always does. Some thoughts she can shoo away with a few comforting purrs, and others she had to dig into and make him talk about it.

He’s kind of surprised when she easily she rids of his earlier anxieties about losing her. With something he could only describe as a mental hug and a pat on the head, it melts away almost completely. There’s still some residual fear in the back of his mind somewhere she couldn’t quite get to (at least not without hurting him), but he’s feeling a lot better. Guess he wasn’t as bothered by that as he thought… That or Blue’s deciding to work fast today. Whatever the case, he got just what he came her for. He relaxes as she continues roaming.

“ _ Ti...red… _ ” Lance hears a faint and distorted voice speak to him, and he chuckles at her attempt to sound human.

Lance and Blue typically communicated with each other non verbally — well,  _ she  _ did, at least. She could understand him perfectly fine, instantly becoming fluent in all and any language her paladin may know (which he assumes it’s the same for the other lions). So he could just straight up talk to her whenever he wanted. However, It wasn’t the same the other way around.

Blue herself couldn’t speak. Not initially. She had to use visions and symbolism to get her point across. Which was fine, it worked if he was flying her and they were in battle or on a mission… but it made regular communication outside those things difficult. It was hard to bond and learn about each other when she couldn’t speak. So Blue, the clever girl she is, sneakily came up with a way she could talk to him.

She finds her voice by pulling specific words she wants to use from his own memory — specifically memories of other people talking. It can be anything from conversations from earlier in the day, old stories told to him by his family, to even random quotes that stuck out and he for some reason hung on to. It was all free game to her. She pulled the words and voices from his past to communicate with him in a basic, but effective, way.

A majority of the time, her voice is a combination of many. Like when she uses common and familiar words. No one in particular can be pointed out with the naked ear, so it sounds more like an original, unique voice than a predisposed one. Though, when she tries using words he didn’t learn until coming to space (like the different words for lengths of time), he can recognize and pinpoint the voices she used. Most of the time it’s just Allura or Coran on their own, since that’s where most knew words come from. Blue tends to avoid using less familiar vocabulary like that… Lance finds it really weird to hear a singular voice coming from her. She seems to feel just as uncomfortable using it.

“Yeah, I sure am.” Lance sighs as he smiles up at her a little wearily. He can feel her slowing down in his mind, trying to be considerate of his current mental state. She shouldn’t worry about it though, he felt fine. Not the  _ least  _ bit tired. ...For the most part, anyway.

_ “Rest…” _

He can only laugh. Of course she would say that. Ignore his duty to be on guard at all times in case he’s needed, just so he can  _ maybe  _ a few more minutes of sleep. Yeah,  _ no big deal or anything _ , just risking the defender of the universe for a few  _ measly  _ winks.

“ _ Voltron… wait… _ ”

Lance laughs even harder, and more genuine. He can feel Blue’s pride and happiness at making him laugh, and it sends a warm feeling through his entire body. He’s feeling so much better already. It almost made him forget why he came here in the first place. Almost.

Right…

He straightens back up and looks up to Blue, his signature silly smirk now in place. He puts his hands in his coat pockets and leaned all his weight on one leg, attempting to look cool and unphased. He quirks his eyebrow.

“So Blue, I wanna let you know I trust you explicitly, and I don’t think you’d leave me for another paladin,” he scoffs “and for  _ Keith  _ of all people.” he doubted they were anywhere near compatible “ _ But _ , a little  _ Pigeon  _ told me  _ someone  _ was checking up on you last night.”

Sure, it didn’t actually bother him anymore, now that he was here. But he was still a little curious as to what Keith might have been doing in here with Blue. It was  _ definitely  _ a little weird. 

She pauses for a moment “ _ Keith…? _ ”

Lance expression falters a bit and his brow raises again, but this time in puzzlement. She sounds almost… confused? No, maybe something else.

He feels a nudge in his mind, pointing his head to the left, and he finds himself looking at the red lion. 

“ _ Strange… _ ”

Lance’s original expression quickly returns and he looks back up to Blue with a funky expression. “Keith and Red are  _ strange  _ you say?” he says with an amused grin “Hey, you said it, not me.”

But that was probably because he was already thinking it. What can he say, he and his lion are  _ totally  _ in sync. He’d give her a fist bump if he knew it wouldn’t crush him to death. Not a fun way to die.

“ _ Serious… _ ” Blue says sternly.

He suddenly gets a mental slap to the back of his head and brings his hands up to rub it. It didn’t  _ hurt _ , it was just unexpected. And felt  _ really  _ weird. He looks back up to ask her what the hell that was for, when a flashback of this morning comes back to him. She digs into his mind to show him what else Pidge said that morning. The moment where she said ‘ _...he was acting kind of weird last night... _ ’ plays.

She calls his attention back to Red.  _ “Unwell…” _

“Unwell?” Lance parrots, sounding somewhat concerned “Are they sick or something?” Wait, could magical robot lions even  _ get  _ sick? Keith definitely could, he was a human, and had the immune system of an infant to boot, but could that transfer over to Red somehow? Like sympathy pain but with the space flu?

_ “No…”  _ Comes Blue’s response.

_ Okay _ , never mind then.

“Then… what's their deal?” He asks, shrugging with his hands still in his pockets, fanning out his jacket with the motion. He still wears a confused expression.

“... _ Unknown... _ ” She says, hesitant. Yes,  _ very  _ helpful, Blue.

“Okay,” Lance says “You think there’s something wrong with Keith and/or Red, but you don’t know what it is,” he waits for her to affirm ‘yes’ before continuing “Then who’s to say there’s anything wrong at all?”

Blue grumbles unhappily in response, unappreciative of Lance’s doubt. She doesn’t say anything, but a few symbols and images are filtered into his head to represent her taken offence. Lance just sighs and rolls his eyes. _ What a baby. _

“Look, Blue, I know you don’t worry for  _ no  _ reason,” he gestures over to the red lion “But c’mon, it’s  _ Red  _ and  _ Keith _ ! They can take care of  _ themselves _ , you don’t need to get into their business. Dude’s probably fine. Just sleep deprived from all that training.” He waves his hand as if to brush of the topic. 

Blue seems like she wants to protest. Lance can feel it… but she says nothing more. He’s thankful that she drops the topic.

“Now I don’t wanna talk about it anymore. I came here to spend quality time with my favorite girl,  _ not  _ worry about a brooding teenage boy.” He raises his hands to the sky, reaching out for Blue. “Now show me some love!”

Her eyes glint yellow once more, and she leaned her head down to the floor, opens her mouth, and allows Lance inside. She tries to get him to take a nap the entire time he spends with her.

* * *

Lance and Keith don't exactly... _get along the best,_ shall we say _._ I mean, they aren’t really _friends,_ by any means. They don’t like each other — Or, at least, _Lance_ didn’t like _Keith,_ but he was sure the feeling was mutual. They always fight, argue, and bicker with each other. The two could start butting heads at the drop of a hat, and there was always a competition even when it was completely unnecessary. Sometimes they act more like enemies than teammates, and you never saw them in the same room unless they were forced to be there together. 

Though he can confirm and agrees with all of the above… Lance would be lying if he said Blue’s concern about Keith didn’t make him a  _ little  _ worried, too. Sure, he's always been a bit of a loner and does better on his own (they’d probably Shiro didn’t drag him to meals everyday) so a checkup was probably unnecessary. He’s independent. He takes care of himself and doesn’t  _ need  _ anyone else. Even if he somehow managed to launch himself out of an airlock, he’d probably be able to survive out in space for a week — out of pure stubbornness alone.

...But something definitely seemed a  _ little  _ off with him recently — not that  _ he  _ noticed. It was Blue and Pidge who even said anything in the first place, and if they hadn’t, Lance wouldn’t have known any different. Even if he did, he could just to ignore him, like he always does. ...At least when they weren't fighting every other second of the day. 

As much as Lance wanted to ignore it, he couldn’t. It just wasn’t good on his conscience. And Blue didn’t worry for no reason — let alone about any of the other paladins. So, if she thought something was up, something was probably up. He would have to let Shiro know about it at the very least… and maybe keep an eye out as he wandered the castle for a little while. It couldn’t hurt.

So Lance made his way around the castle, exploring familiar passageways and pondering the uncharted waters. As he did so, he made sure to pass by and investigated all the usual spots he ran into Keith, which admittedly wasn’t much.

He was pretty surprised to find them all completely empty. Practically abandoned looking. Even the training room looked like it hadn’t been touched in at  _ least  _ a day. Everything was put in its proper place, and all the machines were cold from lack of use. Normally all the training tools were hot to the touch from how frequent and vigorously Keith, along with everyone else, used them. Now that was  _ definitely  _ concerning…

Have you met Keith? He practically  _ lives  _ there — and he seriously  _ would  _ if they’d let him. You couldn’t catch him out of that room more than five minutes! Well, unless he’d been forced out by Shiro, or someone else looking to get in some extra training. Honestly, Lance always speculated if Keith was secretly an alien that survived off adrenaline instead of food...

But back to the point.

Keith wasn’t anywhere to be found. And it borderlines between suspicious and worrying. It’s be one thing if he was somewhere he normally wasn’t, just hanging out if he was sick or something… but he was nowhere! Not even in his room. Like he just straight up Houdini himself off the castle without anyone knowing. ... _ Seriously though _ , Lance didn’t have a clue where he could have gone. Maybe the guy got lost in a lower level of the castle or something? Hopefully he didn’t  _ actually  _ get himself shot out of an air lock… 

Who knows? Who cares? Lance honestly didn’t care anymore. He was tired of searching, and he was already out of ideas. He wasn’t quite sure why he bothered in the first place. But by the time he called it quits, it was nearly time for training to start, as Allura had announced over the intercom. Unfortunately, He was pretty far from the hangars, (about four floors down, in fact) so he had to sprint up  _ several  _ flights of stairs to keep from being too late. Even then he was slightly behind, with everyone else already up in space waiting for him.

“Lance, C’mon! What’s taking so long?” He hears Hunk whine through his helmet as he struggles to suit up quickly. 

“Don’t rush me, i’m on my way!”

Lance hops in Blue after putting his shoes on the correct feet, and sends her rocketing through space the second then hangar doors open. The red lion was already gone when he got there, leaving him a bit confused. He knew Keith was fast but holy hell how did he get here before him? He certainly wasn’t in any of the rooms near the hangar (he checked), but sure enough, Red was grouped up with the others when Lance finally arrives. Maybe he slipped past him and he didn’t realize...

Lance decides not to mention it.

“Nice of you to finally join us.” Shiro teases as Blue flies up to join the others in a group circle.

They’re all floating just fifty meters out from the front of the castle, waiting idly for training to start. Allura and Coran are both still setting up the simulation, so they have a bit of time to kill before things get going. Hunk and Pidge are already deep in conversation before Lance arrived, so he decides to sit back and listen. Normally he’s quite the chatterbox himself, but he was a little too tired to hold a long conversation right now, and he didn’t want to interrupt whatever they were going on about.

Blue seems to hold the same sentiment, as she remains uncharacteristically silent as they wait. She doesn’t normally talk in the traditional way when he pilots her, but there’s still a lack of white noise she usually emits. Like a soft purr, or faint roar. He can barely feel her at the back of his mind at all. Maybe she’s still a little sour at him for what he said earlier.

He’ll apologize later.

“Oh, my god that’s right,” Lance hears pidge exclaim through the comms as she laughs hysterically, voice crackling “I totally forgot he did that!”

“Yeah,” Hunk snorts in between his own laughter, wheezing and coughing like he’s choking “Because he was so embarrassed, he quit his job a week later, and everyone just forgot!”

Their laughter continues for a minute or so, and while Lance has no idea  _ what  _ they’re talking about, he ends up breaking out too. It was so infectious. Pidge sounds so happy and ecstatic, and Hunk’s laugh in particular held a lot of funny nostalgia for him, so he can’t help but join along. Lance even hears Shiro chuckle a few times, though he tries to cover them with a fake cough. It’s moments like this Lance is so thankful to have them as a team. Who else could still have fun and joke around like this while in the middle of a war? They all really help him feel at  _ home _ .

“Hey, Keith, how are you feeling?” Shiro’s voice cuts through the comms when the laughter finally subsides. He’s trying to be serious, but there's still a hint of amusement trapped in his voice, “You’ve been a little quiet.”

There’s some shuffling and scraping in Lance’s ear before he responds, like Keith he had his helmet off and was putting it back on in a hurry. 

“Fine. Just tired.” He replies, his voice quiet and raspy. 

Shrio gives a soft chuckle “Seems like both of Voltron’s arms are falling asleep today. Seriously, why do you guys stay up so late?” Lance holds back a laugh as Shiro lightly scolds them.

“I have important stuff to do. You wouldn’t get it,  _ Dad _ ,” Pidge teases.

Lance could practically feel how insulted Shiro was through a grumble he gives in return. He wasn’t a fan of being called old, as they all found out a few months ago when Pidge dared to call him ‘dad’ for the first time. They sure got the lecture of their lives then... Lance doesn’t remember the last time someone spoke down to him so condescendingly about  _ people  _ and their  _ feelings  _ since… probably preschool.

“Alright paladins,” Allura voices over their radios “Pardon the delay. Coran and I had to make some final adjustments for the simulation. It took longer than expected, but everything should be in order now. Please get into formation and we’ll get started.”

“Yes, Princess.” Shiro replies as he moves his lion into position.

“ _ Yes, Princess. _ ” Pidge repeats in a mocking tone, making quiet kissing noises directly into her mic. Either Shiro doesn’t hear it, or chooses to ignore it. Though, Hunk and Lance both snicker.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road.” Hunk says as he follows Shiro’s lead. “I have some  _ serious  _ baking I need to do. I found the  _ perfect  _ banana substitute for homemade banana bread, and I want to get that figured out _ to-day _ .”

Lance gaps in high pitched tone, “Oh my god, are you gonna make the kind your mom sent with you on your first day to Garrison?!”

“Yup!” Hunk says, popping the P, “The quicker we finish training the quicker we get to Grandma Garrets ‘ _ Pan de Banana _ ’!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”

Everyone flies their lions a few more feet away and set themselves into position. Shiro floats a bit higher than the others, with Pidge and Hunk on his left side, both floating at slightly different heights as well, with Pidge being a bit higher than Hunk. Then, Keith is already at his right side, at the same exact height as Pidge. They’re all waiting for Lance. He hastily engages Blue’s mini thrusters.

But something's wrong.

“What the— Blue?”

“Uhhhh, Lance…” Pidge calls out “What are you  _ doing _ ?”

Instead of steadily propelling themselves towards the others, the blue lion  _ slowly  _ inches forward, mini thrusters barely set above minimum capacity. They’re moving so slowly they might as well not be moving at all.  _ That’s strange, _ Lance thinks. Blue didn’t typically mess around during training.

Lance tries engaging the thrusters again by pushing his controls forward with a little more momentum than last time. She doesn’t budge — in fact, it almost feels like she gets  _ slower _ . He tries moving her legs like she’s going to run through the air, but her movements feel just as slow. And they’re more robotic than usual, not moving with grace and fluidity like normal. The control sticks become stiff and too heavy to move.

“Blue, this is no time to be messing around!” Lance growls, desperately, but unsuccessfully, trying to move her levers into place.

“Seriously, Lance, hurry up.” Hunk says sounding a little annoyed.

“I’m _trying._ It’s not me, she won’t budge!” Lance yanks on her controls harshly “C’mon Blue, move!”

Blue goes slack, and the sound of metal moaning reverberates throughout the lion, all the way into the cockpit. It’s so loud Lance can’t even hear his own shout of pain, or the worried cries of the team. He covers his ears in instinct as the sound ripples through his entire body, though it does little for relief with his helmet in the way.

His bones are vibrating. . His teeth clatter together uncomfortably and feel like they’re digging into his skull. The eternal integrity of the lion shakes like an earthquake, and he can’t determine where it originates from. He’s about to pull at Blue’s controls again, but just as he grasps his fingers around them, _ he feels it. _

The intense and overwhelming feeling of dread and impending doom, accompanied by the strange feeling in his heart. It feels like something‘s trying to pull it straight out of his chest, tugging harder and harder with every merciless yank. The feeling spikes in intensity when the moaning metal arises again. This time, however, was  _ much  _ louder, and sounds less metallic than before. It sounded more like a whale call than anything else. Like it was  _ alive…  _ and in  _ sorrow _ .

Blue hits Lance in the back of the head hard enough to send his entire body lurching forward.

It  _ wasn’t  _ the sound of moving metal,

It was Blue herself crying out in  _ pain _ .

Then, just as quickly it began, it stops. And everything goes quiet. No small vibrations or the sound that was just creating it. Boosters have been deactivated and Blue is completely still. Hesitantly, Lance grips the controls again, but no response. He squeezes harder, still unsure. Again, no response. So he dares to move them fully.

Hesitant, he slowly and meticulously pushes them forward. When they don’t move he pushes a little harder. Again they don’t move, and he pushes harder once more. They remain still, and Lance thinks it’s over. He lets out a sigh of relief, and leans back into his chair recklessly.

And Blue loses it.

“Lance!” The others all shout as Blue starts thrashing her head around violently. Up, down, left right, she shakes her head in directions that don’t even seem possible.

He’s desperate inside the cockpit. The only thing keeping him from being thrown around is his brute strength as he holds himself down on the seat. It isn’t quite enough though, and he finds his grip slipping. He clammers for the damn seat belt he always refuses to wear, hoping to buckle himself in. But he has no such luck. Blue is shaking too violently, and he has to wrap his entire left arm around the rope to keep himself anchored. All the while the thrashing never ceases.

Lance tries to reach out to Blue. Despite her obvious panic, she doesn’t reach back. Her presence is faint, and he can barely feel her. She keeps fading, as if she’s running away from him, getting further and further from him every second. He can’t even reach her controls anymore to attempt to calm her, even if it hadn’t failed the last two times. It isn’t long before she dissipates completely, and he can’t hear her at all. The only thing left is the ringing in his years from the yelling and pleading of his friends who are helpless to stop any of it.

Then, suddenly, Blue comes to a total halt. All movement stops completely. With nothing so much as a twitch of her paw. Everyone is quiet and absolutely still, waiting for the next move. Lance wastes no time in buckling on his seat belt before the thrashing starts again. His head still spins from the shaking, and he can’t get control of his breathing.

Seconds go by, then minutes, and Blue still hasn’t moved. He waits — they  _ all  _ wait — with baited breath. No one can bring themselves to say anything. They don’t even dare to move, afraid it’ll all start again the moment they do. The atmosphere gets less and less tense as the seconds tick along, and everyone seems to start relaxing, relieved that it’s over.

But Lance, Lance doesn’t trust it. It’s too quiet. It’s too still. Her energy levels read at max capacity like she’s speeding through the stars, 

“Woah!”

Lance lets out a yelp of surprise as the lion quickly  _ exceeds  _ max speed and flies through space with no particular direction in mind. She zig zags in a random direction every second, turning at the last possible moment every time, causing Lance serious cases of whiplash he’s ever felt.

He is unable to move from both the incredible G-force and shock. Since when could Blue get so fast? He doesn’t understand what’s going on. His mind is going a mile a minute and he can’t think straight. Why are the damn lions completely controlled by a magic bond and given free will? Lance could really use a brake pedal here!

“Ahg!” Lance lets out a pained yell as Blue screeches to a halt. The seat belt he put on a minute ago thankfully kept him from being launched through windshield into space, but at the cost of a painful jerk against the thick fabric around his hips. Damn, ow. That definitely was going to leave a big fat bruise.

“Hey are you okay?!” Keith yells out hoarse.

The red lion is the first to appear in front of Lance. He flies a little further from him than what looks like was planned, heavy thrusters thrown on to act as brakes.It took a moment before he actually showed up, and Lance didn’t know if it had a difficult time keeping up with Blue, or waited until the last second to move. 

“Lance!” Pidge yelled in panic just as she and Green appear besides Keith, followed by Black, then Yellow.

“Are you alright?” Shiro asks, worried but calm.

“What was that, are you hurt?” Hunk asks sounding incredibly concerned.

Lance shakes his head and groans, rubbing his head. That odd feeling was gone again, but he was still sore in other places. Where the seat belt cut into his body feels incredibly painful already, but he was still glad to have it. He wouldn’t complain about the insistent nagging about driving safety anymore. He could’ve just  _ died _ .

“I’m trying to bring up a face call but I can’t reach through to the blue lion. Lance, come in, Lance are you okay?!” Pidge yells again.

“Yeah. Yeah, Pidge, Hunk... I'm fine, sorry… I just got a little jostled.” Both Pidge and Hunk give a sigh of relief.

Shiro lets out a sigh as well “What happened?”

“I dunno,” Lance coughs “Blue just lost it and I couldn’t control her,” he hesitantly tries her controls again, but nothing happens. All the screens and console lights are turned off. Lance can feel that he’s no longer sitting in his seat and instead floating in the air, held down by the seat belt. “And it looks like it just drained all her power. She isn’t responding.” He moves the controls again in vain. Still nothing. Damn it.

He still couldn’t reach out to her either. He tried to remain calm, but he couldn’t help the fear rising in his chest. Blue was completely off the radar. He doesn’t know whether she went offline, or somehow…  _ disappeared _ . Without her presence at the back of his mind, he felt empty. He felt cold and alone. It’s something he wasn’t quite used to. Something he hadn’t experienced since his days back on earth. 

“Princess Allura.”

“I heard,” she responds, sounding just as worried as Shiro “Hurry and get them back to the castle. Training is off for today.”

“10/4.”

“Oh hey, no training today, awesome!” Pidge exclaims excitedly.

“Pidge!” Hunk whispers as her harshly “Lance could have just gotten hurt, I don’t think now is the time to be happy”

Lance lets out a laugh “Don’t worry Hunk, I'm perfectly okay. Besides, getting out of training is  _ always  _ a time to be happy. Pidge, you have my explicit consent to celebrate, even if I'm practically half dead.” He says trying to lighten the mood, but it casts them in an awkward silence instead. Too soon…?

Shiro uses the black lion to pick up Blue with it’s mouth. Metal creaks as he carefully maneuvers, and tries not to puncture 

“Don’t let Allura hear you say that, she’ll think you sabotaged today on purpose.  _ Then  _ you’ll be in trouble.” he laughs.

The ride back to the castle is incredibly quiet, the others rushing ahead to put away their lions. Lance continues to pull at Blue’s controls weakly. He didn’t get it, she was fine just yesterday! They ran scans on all their lions and everything came up fine.

Then there was that feeling again… He couldn’t explain what it was before, and he still couldn’t, but now he knows it must have been something to to with Blue… Maybe. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if that was a coincidence or related. He didn’t know.

Didn’t know why Blue suddenly wacked out then went dead, didn’t know why he couldn’t read out to her. He didn’t know  _ anything _ . 

_ What the hell was happening? _

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's my Voltron specific tumblr if you wanna check me out ](https://redandblueconstellations.tumblr.com/)


End file.
